Recent studies in behavioral economics and neuroeconomics have revealed that emotion affects impulsivity in intertemporal choice. We examined the roles of socio-emotional status (i.e., perceived stress, depression, quality of sleep, loneliness) in temporal discounting behavior by Japanese non-smokers in a generation-specific manner (20 – 70 s) with a relatively large sample size (N = 3450). We observed that 1) both men and women are the most impulsive in their 60 s; 2) education has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 40 – 49 and women aged 50 – 59; 3) perceived stress has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 60 – 69; and 4) sleeplessness has negative and positive impacts on impulsivity in men aged 40 – 49 and women aged 30 – 39, respectively. Biological and social factors underlying observed findings are discussed.

Previous research indicates a positive relation ship between psychopathy and various negative humor styles. The purpose of the present study was to investigate social exclusion as a possible mediator of the association between psychopathy and negative humor styles in noninstitutionalized young adults. One hundred and thirty-nine university students participated by responding to questionnaires that assess psychopathy, the experience of exclusion from friends, and four humor styles (self-enhancing, affiliative, aggressive, and self-defeating). There was a significant positive association between psychopathy, social exclusion, and aggressive styles of humor, and a negative association between psychopathy and affiliative styles of humor. Moreover, the results of a mediation analysis indicated that the association between psychopathy and aggressive humor style is completely explaine d by the experience of social exclusion. These results suggest that high psychopathic participants who are socially excluded use an aggressive humor style more often than low psychopathic individuals. The present study provides further insights into the role played by social environmental factors in the links between psychopathy and associated interpersonal characteristics.

Previous research has found cross-cultural differences in the strength of the association between self-esteem and happiness. We propose that this difference can be explained by relational mobility, or the degree to which options exist in the givensocio-ecological context for relationship formation and dissolution. In Study 1, we found that the association between self-esteem and happiness was stronger among American participants than among Japanese participants. As predicted, this cultural difference was explained by the difference in relational mobility. In Study 2, we found that the association between self-esteem and happiness was stronger among Japanese living in relationally mobile regions than among Japanese living in less mobile regions. In Study 3, we manipulated relational mobility and demonstrated that the thought of living in a relationally mobile society caused individuals to base their life satisfaction judgments on self-esteem. Overall, our research demonstrates the utility of examining cultural differences from a socio-ecological perspective.

We conducted two studies to explore psychological consequences of a mobile lifestyle. In Study 1, we found that participants who were randomly assigned to think about a mobile lifestyle used more loneliness and sadness-related words and anticipated having fewer friends in the future than those who thought about a stable lifestyle (or a typical day as a control). In Study 2, we replicated this finding with a non-college sample. In addition, we found that those in the mobility condition reported being more motivated to expand their social network. Finally, the effect of mobility on the motivation to expand social networks was mediated by anticipated loneliness and sadness.

Comments on an article by Michael Harris Bond (see record 2013-04015-001), who, in analyzing the original formula by Lewin, viz., B = f(P.S), first considers the importance accorded the situation in previous theorizing about ‘Asianness’, then analyzes the contributions of the actor’s personality. The current author states that Bond encourages Asian social psychologists to provide unique contributions to the development of social psychology by fully utilizing the insight provided by Kurt Lewin. This is because Asians are more sensitive than Westerners to the intricate influences that the situation has on their actions. Bond advises Asian psychologists to pay close attention to the role of the situation in theory building, rather than focusing more attention on the uniquely Asian psychological phenomena.

We observed the behaviors of the same people across five games—two prisoner’s dilemma games, a trust game (in which the subject took on the role of both trusterand trustee), a dictator game, and a faith game—any pair of which was separated by an interval of several months to reduce potential carry-over effects, and found strong consistency in behaviors among these games. We also found consistency between the expectations of other players’ behaviors and the player’s own behavior across games. We further found that the consistent behavioral pro-socialityobserved across different games was related to the general measures of pro-social value orientation and perceiving the game situations. These findings suggest that individual and cultural differences in game behaviors can reflect both the ways in which people perceive game situations and their general social preferences.

Research suggests that for many people happiness is being able to make the routines of everyday life work, such that positive feelings dominate over negative feelings resulting from daily hassles. In line with this, a survey of work commuters in the three largest urban areas of Sweden show that satisfaction with the work commute contributes to overall happiness. It is also found that feelings during the commutes are predominantly positive or neutral. Possible explanatory factors include desirable physical exercise from walking and biking, as well as that short commutes provide a buffer between the work and private spheres. For longer work commutes, social and entertainment activities either increase positive affects or counteract stress and boredom. Satisfaction with being employed in a recession may also spill over to positive experiences of work commutes.

Previous research has indicated that individuals with high trait self-esteem (HSEs) become more independent and less interdependent after experiencing a task-relevant threat. However, these studies have not investigated other sources of ego threats, such as interpersonal threats. Therefore, the moderating effects of the degree of trait self-esteem on task-relevant and interpersonal ego threats were investigated in relation to independent, or interdependent self-construal. It was predicted that in HSEs, the level of task-relevant stress would be positively–negatively related to their independence–interdependence, whereas the level of interpersonal stress would be negatively–positively related to their independence–interdependence. In individuals with low trait self-esteem (LSEs), the two types of stresses and independent–interdependent self-construal may not have a significant relationship. We conducted a questionnaire survey with undergraduates.Correlational analysis of the results indicated that in HSEs, greater task-relevant stress was related to heightened independence, whereas greater interpersonal stress had the opposite effect, indicating lower independence and heightened interdependence. However, these stresses were not related to the self-construal of LSEs. These findings suggest that task-relevant and interpersonal threat could have differential effects on independent and interdependent self-construal for HSEs, but not in LSEs.

Beliefs about personhood are understood to be a defining feature of individualism-collectivism (I-C), but they have been insufficiently explored, given the emphasis of research on values and self-construals. We propose the construct of contextualism, referring to beliefs about the importance of context in understanding people, as a facet of cultural collectivism. A brief measure was developed and refined across 19 nations (Study 1: N = 5,241), showing good psychometric properties for cross-cultural use and correlating well at the nation level with other supposed facets and indicators of I-C. In Study 2 (N = 8,652), nation-level contextualism predicted ingroup favoritism, corruption, and differential trust of ingroup and outgroup members, while controlling for other facets of I-C, across 35 nations. We conclude that contextualism is an important part of cultural collectivism. This highlights the importance of beliefs alongside values and self-representations and contributes to a wider understanding of cultural processes.

Although it is commonly assumed that social support positively predicts health, the empirical evidence has been inconsistent. We argue that three moderating factors must be considered: (1) support-approving norms (cultural context); (2) support-requiring situations (stressful events); and (3) support-accepting personal style (lowneuroticism). Our large-scale cross-cultural survey of Japanese and US adults found significant associations between perceived support and health. The association was more strongly evident among Japanese (from a support-approving cultural context) who reported high life stress (in a support-requiring situation). Moreover, the link between support and health was especially pronounced if these Japanese were low inneuroticism.

The current study examined whether dispositionally happy individuals feel less happiness when another person experiences a misfortune. Happy individuals are known to be less vulnerable to upward comparison information. In addition, schadenfreude is elicited by upward comparison targets (e.g. high achievers and tall poppies). Thus, it was assumed that happiness would decrease schadenfreude. The lower level of hostile feelings in happy individuals, which are elicited by threats to one’s person and inferiority heightened when confronted with a high achiever, was hypothesized to decrease schadenfreude. Studies 1 and 2 were conducted with scenario experiments, and the hypotheses were supported in both studies. Regression analyses revealed a significant direct effect of happiness on a reduction in schadenfreude. How not feeling schadenfreude when witness another person’s misfortune helps people maintain and/or increase their happiness is discussed.

This study aims to investigate the relationships among mental health, a “sense of coherence” (SOC), and social support in Japanese university students with a focus on gender differences. Participants (548 university students) completed General Health Questionnaire-12, of the SOC-13 scales, and of the social support scale. Structural equation modeling indicates indicate that improvement in social support may be effective in strengthening SOC as a precaution against the decline of mental health in university students. Additionally, it is suggested that enhancing support from friends in males and support from family members and special people in females is effective in strengthening SOC.

We sought to investigate prospectively the association between exposure to disaster (the 2011 East Japan Earthquake) and change in depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adult survivors. We used two waves of data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), an ongoing population-based, prospective cohort study in Japan. A unique feature of our study was the availability of information about mental health status pre-dating the disaster. Our sample comprised community-dwelling survivors aged 65 and older, who responded to surveys in 2010 (i.e. one year before the disaster) and in 2013 (n = 3464). We categorized disaster exposure according to three types of experiences: loss of family/friends, property damage, and disruption in access to medical service. Our main outcome was change in depressive symptoms, measured by the 15-item geriatric depression scale (GDS). Among the participants, 917 (26.5%) reported losing a family member to the disaster, while a further 537 (15.5%) reported losing a friend. More than half of the participants reported some damage to their homes. After adjusting for demographics and baseline mental health, people whose homes were completely destroyed had significantly elevated depressive symptom scores three years later (+1.22 points, 95%CI: 0.80, 1.64, p < 0.0001). Disruption of psychiatric care was also associated with change in GDS scores (+2.51 points, 95%CI: 1.28, 3.74, p < 0.0001). By contrast, loss of family/friends was no longer associated with GDS after 3 years; +0.18 points (95%CI: −0.018, 0.37, p = 0.08) for loss of family, and −0.045 points (95%CI: −0.28, 0.19, p = 0.71) for loss of friends. Three years after the disaster, survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami appeared to have recovered from loss of loved ones. By contrast, property loss and disruption of psychiatry care were associated with persistent adverse impact on mental health.

This study examined the relation between the acquisition of false-beliefs theory of mind and reciprocity in preschoolers. Preschool-aged children completed a task assessing the understanding of false beliefs, and played an Ultimatum Game (UG) with another child in a face-to-face setting. Negative reciprocity was assessed by examining the rejection of unfair offers made by another child in the UG, while positive reciprocity by examining allocations made by participants in a Dictator Game (DG) following the UG. The results indicated that children who had passed a task assessing first-order false beliefs were more likely to make generous offers in a DG following a fair offer made by their partner in a proceeding UG, but that the false beliefs theory of mind was unrelated to the rejection of unfair offers in the UG.